APPLYING CONTEXT SENSITIVE HIGHWAY DESIGN TO ACHIEVE ACCESS MANAGEMENT IMPROVEMENTS

Context-sensitive design is an interdisciplinary approach to developing a transportation project that takes into consideration not only the traditional parameters of traffic capacity and geometric standards, but the entire range of issues and impacts related to community stakeholders. Context-sensitive design represents a new evolution in community and agency involvement where citizens and affected agency staff work alongside planners and engineers to create a solution that best fits with community goals and values. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and state departments of transportation as well as local governments across the country are embracing this new approach in order to arrive at designs that are compatible with communities and consider the diverse interests associated with roadway projects. CH2M HILL was selected by the City of Shoreline to develop a new multimodal corridor design for a 3-mile stretch of urban arterial (signed State Route 99) within the City. On the Shoreline project, we chose to use the context-sensitive design practice in order to more efficiently and effectively deliver a preferred alternative that would have support and constructability. One of the key goals of the project from both the city's and the state department of transportation's point of view was to address access management on a segment of highway that experiences some of the highest accident rates in the state and suffers from a general lack of access controls. This paper and presentation will provide a case example of the Shoreline experience. It will illustrate how context-sensitive design facilitates "thinking beyond the pavement" to accomplish access management treatments on roadway design projects. It presents a new design approach where citizens and agency representatives forge a cooperative team that achieves a level of acceptance and excellence in the roadway design that provides lasting value to the community.

• Record URL:
  http://www.teachamerica.com/accessmanagement.info/pdf/AM00PAPR.pdf
• 
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Bevan, T
  • Slind, T
  • McKinley, K
• Conference:
  • Fourth National Access Management Conference
  • Location: Portland, Oregon
  • Date: 2000-8-13 to 2000-8-16
• Publication Date: 2000

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 5p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Access control (Transportation); Arterial highways; Communities; Context sensitive design; Cooperation; Crash rates; Geometry; Highway capacity; Highway design; Highway safety; Improvements; Multimodal transportation; Public participation; Strategic planning; Teams; Traffic crashes; Transportation corridors
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Society; Terminals and Facilities; I21: Planning of Transport Infrastructure;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00935945
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Dec 31 2003 12:00AM